The Grief Room

The Grief Room is a space where participants convene online twice a month for six months. This workshop is designed to support artists, writers, healing professionals, carers, organizers, and any-body who is interested in deepening into practices & rituals of intention & play through compound crises.

The Grief Room will utilize time and space of shared intentionality: intention to contain and witness personal and collective losses and growths; intention to grieve, compile, compost and mourn; and intention to practice objectification toward collective healing.

“The self” is not a universal concept; however, this group will convene around the concept of “the self” as a container or regulatory body that each “individual”/participant occupies. This group convenes at the cross-section of Western mythology, psychology and embodied wisdom.

Participants will receive guidance regarding self-regulation and autonomous movement toward collective healing.

In this space, participants will be encouraged and challenged to observe, track and trace embodied needs/desires. This group is designed to promote self-intimacy and to examine the radical roots of connectedness.

*This group is not a therapy group. This is a collective, online learning space. The Grief Room is intended to stir, digest, process and compost our collective shit. This group will be capped at 10 participants.

Teachers & Texts the group may call upon:

(reading/purchasing these text is optional)

• “Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism” by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira

• “Crisis Contemplation: Healing the Wounded Village” by Dr. Barbara Holmes

• “Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology: Reflections of the Soul” by Marie-Louise von Franz

• Various works by Vine DeLoria Jr., James Baldwin, Octavia E. Butler, Dr. Cornel West, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and others

  What you will need to attend this group:

-An object/tool of your choice that allows you to make marks to your satisfaction (this can be a single sheet of paper, a journal, a tablet or computer, a tray of sand or any other object that you’d like to commune with during group gathering times)

-A wifi connection and a device that allows you to join Zoom for online gatherings.

-A completed application and confirmation email from your host

Duration:

12, twice-monthly gatherings on zoom - 90 minutes/gathering

Cohort 1:

Tuesdays 5-6:30p (Central Standard Time) CST

Cohort 2:

Friday afternoons - exact time TBD

Cohort 3: 

Sundays 4-5:30pm CST 

***Accepting applications for October 2023 Cohorts***

Cost:

Poverty & scarcity are necessary features of our capitalist systems. In light of this fact, group costs are calculated based on my household financial needs + participants financial positionality and access.

I encourage potential participants to read more about mutual aid and how to assess relative financial positionality here. And here. 

Suggested payments based on financial access:

Participants experiencing financial abundance are encouraged to pay $150-300/session to subsidize the cost of other participants.

Participants experiencing financial stability are encouraged to pay $50-150/session.

Participants experiencing financial vulnerability are encouraged to pay $10-50/session.

In my ideal/dream world, no-body would be turned away based on a lack of funds. If you would like to sponsor an-other’s participation in this group, please do so here.

Application Questions

Please answer the following questions if you are interested in joining this group - responses can be emailed to: feelingndealing@gmail.com

1. What draws you to this group? What would you like to offer to the group? What would you like to receive?

2. Which Cohort is most accessible for your schedule?

   Cohort 1: Tuesdays 5-6:30p (Central Standard Time)

   Cohort 2: Friday afternoons - exact time TBD

   Cohort 3: Sundays 4-5:30pm CST 

   *Please include your time zone in your response.

3. What challenges are you facing during this time? What & who are your current supports? What practices do you have in place to ground & support you? (i.e. meditation, embodiment/mindful movement, therapy, creative practices)

4. What would you like to share about your identity?

5. Do you have accessibility needs or accommodation requests in order to attend a zoom meeting?

6. Please estimate your payment amount. Meetings take place twice monthly for 12 sessions. Please take all of your financial responsibilities and obligations into consideration when estimating your ability to pay.

7. You are granted a wish: you get to hang out with any three people - dead or living - for 2 hours. Who do you choose?

8. Is there anything else that is important for me to know about you or your potential participation in group?